[mos def] listen my whole life is real, morning news and nights is real what i spit and i write is real, cuz my life is real my own life is ill!! filled with magic’s strife to scale sun bright, no time to chill, got all type of bills i got seeds i gotta feed with this they be needin sh*t, i got ex-wife beef and sh*t that’s how deep it get my whole life is real, my whole life is ill a fantastic, a beautiful mess and life n*gg* in america: the usual stress i do it to the up, low, the east and the west, i do it to most, i do it to death i do so it good they don’t know what to do with theyselves well do this: move! back, forward, mo’ life is real, let’s move on

[hook] my whole life is real, morning news and nights is real what i spit and i write is real, cuz my life is ill filled with magic’s strife to scale sun bright, no time to chill got all type of bills i got seeds i gotta feed with this i got streets i gotta reach with this that’s how deep it get

[mos def] my whole life is ill, my whole life is real mornings, noon’s, nights birthdays, workdays, holidays, funerals. the usual life is real! sunday to monday, school, your gunplay, politics, bullsh*t life is real! shootings, stabbing, free tray, arrest crush, kill, destroy, cheques death. rebirth reach the world but touch the street first life goin in every direction but rewind n*gg*z is waiting for the light to dive down on a park a hustler plays the hide out somebody’s gotta notice it’s a matter of time before the world fine out the earth dry out and push the hintin to high ground,life style–hostile real, life real real so real, too real, news real–edited the close up block out the rest of it true evident, false measurement crunk superstar, thug president tricks allegiance, m-def payment ship scribe lively, so timely,that is timeless and is lovely, and is ugly, as it must be